


As It Should Be

by tcwordsmith



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, M/M, Oblivious Dean, Unrequited, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-10
Updated: 2013-05-10
Packaged: 2017-12-10 23:36:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/791478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tcwordsmith/pseuds/tcwordsmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Benny knows his place and he's acclimated to it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As It Should Be

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> I wrote this fic after a conversation with my friend Wrenton. Initially, I just wanted to try my hand at unrequited Benny/Dean, but then I managed to get it written in exactly 1000 words and I got excited because I've never done that.
> 
> So, this is for Wrenton, because getting jerked around by school sucks and life is better when there's surprise fic on the other side of things.

“Well fuck you too, then,” Dean shouts from a room in the bunker.  Sam shakes his head and Benny tips his chair back on two legs, stifling a sigh.

They don’t have to wait very long before Dean comes stomping out of the room he and Cas share. “Sounds like there’s trouble in paradise, again,” Sam mutters, neatly printing annotations in the margins of the book he’s studying.

“Shut up, Sammy,” Dean grunts as he stomps toward the kitchen, “I need a fuckin’ beer, anyone else?”

“No thanks, brotha,” Benny murmurs, Sam echoes him.

Dean comes back with a beer and shrugs, “Suit yourselves I guess.” He downs half of it and drops into a chair across from Sam.  “So, what’s on tap tonight?”

Sam sighs and closes the book, but not before marking his place, “I’m trying to get some research done. Benny was helping, but he already grabbed the books I asked for.  You have something you want to do?”

“Nope,” Dean says, tipping back his beer again, “Not a single plan. Now, anyway,” he mutters behind the rim of the bottle.

Benny rocks the chair forward, the legs not making much noise as they hit the carpet under the table. “Hey, are you and th’ angel doin okay, brother?” He asks quietly, checking that Sam’s gone back to his research first.

Dean rolls his eyes and shrugs again, “I have no clue, man.” Benny nods thoughtfully. “Hey!” Dean smiles as a thought occurs to him, “Why don’t we go out? There’s a bar in town; I bet we could scare up a decent game of pool. Or poker.” He finishes off the beer and gets up, ready to do anything that isn’t sitting around waiting.

Benny cracks his neck and gives Dean a steady look, “You sure it’s a good idea, goin’ to a bar?”

“Yeah, ‘course it is. I won’t even scam ‘em.  Gotta live near these folks after all,” Dean’s smile grows brighter and Benny shakes his head helplessly.

“Go on then. Y’know I can’t refuse you anything,” he tips his hat back and rubs his forehead.  Dean strides out of the room, presumably to grab his jacket and keys.

Sam taps his pencil against the edge of the book for a moment before he tucks his hair behind his ears and looks at Benny. “You sure you’re good to do this, man?” He bites his lip and holds Benny’s gaze.

“Sam, I’m always good for this,” Benny replies lazily, “What else’m I good for if not goin’ out with my good friend Dean?” He stretches back a bit and runs his thumbs up and down the underside of his suspenders, straightening out a kink in one of them.

“You know what I mean, Benny,” Sam sighs and points his pencil at Benny.

“Don’t point nothin’ at me you ain’t prepared t’lose, Sam,” Benny quips.

Frustrated, Sam drops the pencil and raises his hands in surrender, “Okay, okay, deflect away, Lafitte. I’m just trying to look out for you.”

“I see them puppy dog eyes a’yours startin’ up, Samuel, and I’m tellin’ you you don’t want to go there with me,” Benny says sternly. “I ain’t got time for your pity, and I wouldn’t want it if I did. I’m lookin’ out f’r Dean tonight. Maybe you ought t’look out for that angel of his,” he stands and pushes first his chair and then Dean’s back under the table.

Picking up his pencil again, Sam nods, “He’ll probably show up the second you two leave.”

“Pr’lly. It seems to be his modus operandi,” Benny nods and gently tosses Dean’s empty bottle into the recycling bin.  “I’ll bring ‘im back in one piece, don’t you fret.”

“You always do,” Sam replies, scratching out a passage.

Benny starts down the hall but pulls up short outside Dean’s room.  When the murmuring he hears doesn’t turn into shouting, he takes a deep breath and back away quietly.  He nods to himself and turns, heading for the kitchen while bypassing the library for the moment.

“Figured I wouldn’t ask this time,” Benny says, setting an open beer bottle on the table in Sam’s peripheral vision.

Sam looks up and raises an eyebrow while Benny drops heavily into his chair. “No more trouble in paradise I take it?”

“All’s as it should be,” Benny says with a tight smile. He takes off his cap and sets it on an empty spot of table.

“Benny—I—you and Dean and—” Sam gropes for something to say.

Benny stops him with a shake of his head and a looser smile, “Sam, I know it wasn’t “meant to be,” alright? It ain’t like I haven’t known it since I met them.  They got each other and that’s all I c’n ask.” He leans forward and taps the neck of his bottle against Sam’s before taking a deep drink.

“I…I guess. Just, I wish you could—I don’t know, tell him or something,” Sam sighs and picks up his beer, “Clear the air or whatever.” He takes a small drink.

“Honestly, Sam, I know you mean well, but you gotta stop. What good would it do for me t’say any of that? I already had my one great love, fifty years ago. She was beautiful an’ smart an’ I did all I could to deserve her.  It’s high time he got his.  I’m happy enough, bein’ his friend. Ain’t too many who can call themselves that after all,” Benny smiles over his bottle before tipping it back and draining it dry.

He can feel Sam’s sad look on him as he leans back in his seat and tries to concentrate on not listening to the voices in the back room.  It may have gotten a little easier to tune Dean out since they left Purgatory, but it’s still his first instinct to listen for him. “I meant it, about th’ pointin’, Sam—th’ warnin’ goes for those puppy dog eyes of yours too.”


End file.
